Greek Tycoon, Inexperienced Mistress

Frantic confusion assailed Lindy in the aftermath of their lovemaking, for she had no script to follow and no idea what she had been thinking of when she’d allowed things to go so far. Her overwhelming hunger for him had been satisfied but at what cost? she wondered in painful mortification.

Atreus emerged from the same experience shell-shocked. He was unnerved by the acknowledgement that he had been out of control for the first time in his life. His mood was not improved when his attention fell on the man’s black bow tie lying on the carpet by the bed. Halliwell’s tie…obviously. Distaste filled Atreus, and his reaction was instantaneous. He pulled away from Lindy and sprang off the bed to stride into the bathroom next door.

In the silence, Lindy tugged down her disarranged clothing and shuddered at what she had allowed to happen. He had neither held her nor kissed her afterwards; everything had changed between them; everything was different. She slid off the bed on nerveless legs, her body still quivering from the rampant impact of his and the excruciatingly tender state of it in the aftermath of his devouring passion. Like a woman running from the scene of a crime, she sped downstairs.

Atreus splashed his face and dried it. He was seething with anger and a daunting sense of bewilderment. He had not wanted sex since he’d left her. But he never, ever went back to a woman. When it was over, it was over. He had always walked away from relationships before they could reach the messy stage, but what had just occurred had been messy to say the very least. Brilliant, fantastic sex, he conceded bitterly, but inappropriate—particularly when she had wasted no time in inviting another man into her bed.

He had wanted Lindy again only because she was familiar, he decided grimly. But since when had he found the familiar so appealing? So sexually irresistible? Had he grown past the age where he wanted a constant parade of variety in the bedroom? Was he now ready for a more settled lifestyle? Perhaps it was time for him to begin looking out for a wife rather than another lover. That bold step forward in thought, away from Lindy and on to a more traditional horizon, pleased Atreus and steadied his resolve.

‘I’m sorry,’ Atreus breathed coldly, when he found Lindy waiting for him in the living room.

‘I’m not sure I understand what you’re apologising for,’ Lindy admitted stiltedly, frantically avoiding direct eye contact. She sensed his detachment and it chilled her that he could switch off again so easily.

‘What we had is over and done with,’ Atreus declared without hesitation. ‘I shouldn’t be here when I don’t want you back.’

Lindy marvelled that she managed to continue breathing through the savage sense of rejection that that blunt declaration had dealt her. He had dragged her off to bed and made passionate love to her but it had meant absolutely nothing to him. Indeed, his hostile attitude made it clear that he very much regretted their renewed intimacy.

‘You know…’ Lindy began hesitantly, despising herself in advance for the plea of innocence she was about to make without any encouragement from him. ‘I didn’t sleep with Ben. I slept down here on the sofa.’

Against his own volition Atreus directed grim dark eyes at the sofa and the bedding still lying on it in an untidy heap. He looked away again, refusing to dwell on what she had said, refusing the suggestion that the information could have any power to influence him. ‘It doesn’t matter. You’re not my business any more,’ he said drily. ‘I crossed boundaries I had no right to cross today. It won’t happen again.’

Watching Atreus leave, Lindy felt as if someone was squeezing her heart dry of blood. She couldn’t breathe for the pain of it. She watched him ride off from the window and then drew back to cover her tear-wet face with trembling hands. She felt sick again, and she wanted to bang her head against the wall to hurt herself—because she felt that she deserved to be punished for the way she had let herself down. How could she have been so foolish as to go to bed with him again? Particularly after he had suggested she was a loose woman? Where was her self-respect? She and Atreus had never been on a level playing field. It seemed that his convenient affair had been her heartbreak…

CHAPTER SIX

FORTY-EIGHT hours later, Lindy was doggedly engaged in packing orders for her customers, in preparation for heading off to the post office, when the doorbell rang. She had to sign for the envelope the postman gave her, and she tore it open with a frown.

It was a notice to quit The Lodge for non-payment of rent, and it requested that she move out within two months. Lindy’s eyes were wide with disbelief. In recent months she had received a couple of letters pointing out that she owed the Chantry estate rent arrears. When the second letter had arrived she had gone to the estate office in person, to point out that she had paid the rent but that it had been continually repaid into her account. The estate manager had apologised, explained that it was a computer-generated letter and said that she should just ignore it. He had turned down her offer to write a cheque to cover the rent arrears then and there, and had said something about that not being Mr Dionides’s wish. Advising her to ignore any similar letters that she received, he had shown her to the door. When she’d mentioned the matter to Atreus, it had been evident he already knew about it. He had told her not to worry about an oversight made by a new member of staff and that the problem would not arise again.